Page 2377 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 31 July 2018
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This has presented an enormous challenge. Detroit’s local government must now work with its community to pull the city back from the brink, diversify its economy and ensure its long-term sustainability. The city’s local government is focusing its efforts on some of its most derelict areas, acknowledging that it cannot do everything all at once. In the most derelict of areas, where entire neighbourhoods of homes have been demolished, the city is doing simple things like planting wildflowers and putting up good-quality residential-style fences and the like to demonstrate that areas are being loved and cared for.
The city is working genuinely with communities to build up pride in their neighbourhoods. It may be many years before the population grows sufficiently to sustain the redevelopment that is now required. These small, low-cost interventions assist in maintaining pride until that redevelopment can occur, rather than allowing large tracts of previously developed land to become wastelands full of weeds. They are working with industry and local communities to provide incentives for demonstration precincts, again focusing their energy on a few areas so that success can be demonstrated before moving to the next area.
The city is focused on demonstrating success in areas of greatest need and ensuring the best use of its limited resources, making sure that it does not spread those resources too thinly. In the city centre they are linking arts and culture with planning and encouraging start-ups to inhabit forgotten parts of the city. Microbreweries and artists are starting to come into these formerly abandoned spaces, and with that bringing people and revitalising otherwise abandoned areas. There is a recognition that it is people that make a successful city.
While Detroit was an extreme example, it did demonstrate the importance of long-term planning on the social fabric of a city. In the past, decisions had been made that segregated different parts of the population, creating areas of social and economic divide and reducing equity. These past decisions, including the red-lining policy, have now come back to haunt the city. The failure of past planning decisions was openly acknowledged by the people we spoke to. We were impressed with the openness and willingness of those people to learn from the past. We noticed a growing sense of pride in the city. While looking over their shoulders to learn from past mistakes, the city and its people were clearly focused on the future of the city.
A key finding from our visit to Detroit was how important it is for art, history and planning to work together to achieve good quality city revitalisation. While Canberra is a relatively young city, further tapping into art, culture and history and linking this with our planning policy is something that we could also do. Indeed, we already have successes in this regard. Our own annual Heritage Festival is a good example, and I am excited at the opportunity to do more in this area.
Perhaps most importantly, our visit to Detroit reinforced the importance of a strong and diverse economy in guaranteeing the resilience of a city in the face of national and global trends. Detroit’s reliance on the automotive industry was part of its downfall, and it is a great example of why this government is committed to diversifying the ACT economy.
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